There is an increasing drive to integrate more devices with disparate capabilities into a single vanishingly-small package. This trend is driven by both consumer electronics and government applications, in which robust, long-life systems must perform continuous monitoring in hostile environments in order to supplement scarce human intelligence resources.
For example, electronic systems such as portable wireless communication devices or portable clinical diagnostic kits may require the integration of multiple capabilities, such as robust computational power, accurate imaging, guidance and navigation, biochemical detection, and robust and secure communications into a single package.
Traditionally, system and packaging design largely decouples the system components and addresses their development in parallel. This results in larger than optimal and power-inefficient systems. These are typically packaged individually into separate modules, wherein a module generally refers to a single substrate, interposer, or other support structure, with one or more components disposed thereon, with functional interconnections that couple the components to other devices.
In certain instances, multiple components may be packaged into a single module, but these components are typically all of the same technology type (i.e. all are digital integrated circuits, all are memory chips, etc.), all of the same material (i.e. a silicon communication layer stacked with a silicon imaging layer), or consist of a limited number of active devices (<5) packaged with a small number of passives (<10).
In order to approach the theoretical maximum component density and power efficiency for arbitrary materials, large numbers of components, and arbitrary interconnection paths (e.g. horizontal and vertical), the specification and design of the constituent subsystems must be conducted in a highly optimized and coupled manner. Additionally, the integration method must overcome the host of thermophysical incompatibilities encountered when interconnecting the platforms into a single device.